Jamie Berkman and Roxie Rafik Are the Best Buddies and Best Battery the Heritage League Has Ever Seen

They’ve been best friends, teammates and classmates for 13 years.

From the time they met in kindergarten at Viewpoint, a tiny private school in Calabasas, Roxie Rafik and Jamie Berkman have been almost inseparable. Brought together as much by circumstance as by shared activities and goals, Rafik and Berkman have developed an unspoken closeness, a casual but intense camaraderie that is as strong off the field as it is on.

“They’re such very good friends, I think they have ESP sometimes,” said Greg Reece, their softball, volleyball and basketball coach at Viewpoint for the past eight years. “They don’t even have to communicate verbally, they know each other that well.”

Indeed, Rafik and Berkman have played 11 seasons of sports together at the school. They’ve been on the same softball, volleyball and basketball teams--and in the same history, English and science classes. Together, they have also toured the 13 original American colonies and traveled to the South Pacific, Australia, Tahiti and Hawaii.

Even their academic records are similar: There is only a .02 difference in their grade-point averages. Rafik has a 3.74 average, while Berkman lags behind at 3.72. In sixth grade, they were even suspended together, Berkman said, for “using words we weren’t suppose to know then.”

But the softball diamond is where they shine.

On Viewpoint’s undefeated team, Rafik is the pitcher and Berkman is the catcher. They are 5-0 in the Heritage League this season--and undefeated in 34 games over the past three years.

Berkman, who is batting .580 this season, was named All-Southern Section last year. Rafik has twice been selected to the All-Southern Section team and was the Southern Section’s co-most valuable player last year with an earned-run average of 0.67. She holds all of Viewpoint’s pitching records.

They’re so good, it’s almost unfair. They’ve given few other girls a chance to be honored. Rafik and Berkman have made All-Heritage League team in softball, volleyball and basketball each season for the past 11 years.

Yet after all the years of togetherness, Rafik and Berkman share few mannerisms, clothes, habits or boyfriends. They’re as different as any two friends can be.

Berkman, 17, is a dark blonde with short hair, blue eyes and a mischievous smile. Rafik, 18, is a dark-skinned brunette with big brown eyes. Berkman is all giggles and jokes and stories. Rafik is thoughtful, quiet and reflective. Berkman is from a Christian-Jewish family. Rafik is from a Moslem-Mormon family.

“Jamie is a hard worker, a jolly person, always kidding, but that’s somewhat deceptive because she’s extremely competitive,” Reece said. “Roxie, at first, appears very quiet, but she is also very determined and competitive. Yet, she’s also a very unselfish, giving person.

“She’s always for the underdog.”

Rafik’s affinity for the underdog is understandable. In fact, when Rafik and Berkman first signed up to play softball with the West Valley Girl’s Softball Assn. almost 10 years ago, they made the league only by default.

“There were eight little girls, including Jamie, left over after the draft. They were the bottom eight,” said Susan Rafik, Roxie’s mother. “They needed five more players to make a team. So, they asked all the leftover players to go back to their schools and recruit some classmates to make a team. Jamie came to school and asked Roxie and off they went.”

Some things haven’t changed much.

“If you’re not in a full-body cast, you’re on the team,” said Susan Rafik of the Viewpoint teams.

Said Reece: “With only 33 girls in school, there are no tryouts. Whoever walks out, plays. There are people on the team who have never played organized softball before. When I’m explaining to them, ‘Now, when a grounder goes to the shortstop,’ they interrupt and ask, ‘Where’s the shortstop and what’s a grounder?’ ”

It’s at times like that when Reece looks over at Rafik and Berkman and starts to feel sad. But it’s not frustration that causes his melancholy. It’s just a touch of nostalgia.

“You know, I’ve watched them grow from young children to young women. I saw when they started noticing boys in the sixth grade, when they started dating and having boyfriends. . . . It’s an unusual situation for a coach to be with two players for so long.

“This is a good year for Roxie and Jamie because they’re being approached by many colleges offering scholarships,” he said. “But, it’s also sad to know this is their last year with me.”

Reece paused. “Sometimes, I feel as if they’re my own girls.”

Rafik and Berkman say they’re not really sure what has kept them together all these years. They’ve had their arguments and problems, but nothing that ever jeopardized their friendship or interfered with their teamwork .

“We keep our personal problems off the playing field,” Berkman said.

Successfully, it would appear.

In 11 seasons of volleyball, basketball and softball, Rafik and Berkman have 185 wins, 43 losses. They’ve won three Heritage League co-championships in volleyball, one championship in basketball and three championships in softball. They’ve made the Southern Section softball semifinals for three-consecutive years.

Berkman has been the softball team’s most valuable player four times. Rafik has received the honor five times. Both help Reece as assistant coaches.

“My respect for them is very high,” Reece said. “They constantly strive to better themselves. I think in the last four years, the girls have had about eight days off of practice and that’s because they want to get out there and practice. They’re the ones who push.

“Their desires and expectations have put a lot of pressure on me, which has kept my ideals and goals high. I think our bond is competitiveness.”

Rafik and Berkman agree.

“Coach Reece hates to lose,” Berkman said. “He’s very competitive and that’s rubbed off on us. We hate to lose, too.”

They haven’t had much experience with losing, except in the Southern Section softball finals. Rafik and Berkman said that their goal for their senior year at Viewpoint is to go all the way to the state finals in softball--and win.

“I’ve learned that you always have to look toward your next success,” Rafik said. “You can’t be so satisfied with what you’ve done that you don’t want to do better or do more. Winning state would be a perfect way to end our softball season this year. Perfect.”

But Rafik, like Reece, is approaching this season with a mixture of high goals and low morale.

“After 13 years together, it’s really strange to think we’ll be going away to different colleges. It will be hard,” she said. “Sometimes, when were practicing or talking, I’ll start thinking about graduation. Oh, you think you’ll stay friends through letters or phone calls, but it will change. . . . I’m not looking forward to graduation.”

Rafik is considering scholarship offers from Northern Arizona, University of Colorado and Oregon State. She is still waiting to hear from Stanford.

Berkman, who wants to study marine biology, has interviewed at Cal, but is also looking at Utah State and the University of Oregon.

“It looks like we’re going to have to go our separate ways,” Berkman said. “Neither of us are looking forward to it.”

Said Rafik: “Some people think we’re sisters, although we don’t look anything alike, and being separated will be hard. I remember when we really broke through and realized we had a special relationship. We had just left Australia and it was very hard on Jamie because she was leaving a good friend. She turned to me and said, ‘God, I don’t know what I’d do without a good friend like you.’

“It was then that I realized we actually needed one another. It was then I realized that she was not just another buddy.”